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Sufi hyenas in Londonistan

Article from–the Monthly Review. The current interjunction of Marxists, postmodernists, and the Moslem world is producing some odd things indeed. Given the hysteria of rightist Islamophobes as seen in the recent book, Londonistan ( a wretched text, which unfortunately had some good points), this interaction is not without interest, especially after a century plus of Feuerbachian cliches from the left.

I won’t say much about a book I haven’t read, but I will protest the abuse of postmodernism by New Age, Buddhist/Indian/Hindu, and Sufi figures, on the grounds of the outright fascist esotericism plotting against modern freedom and democracy behind veils of disinformation (Check out Rene Guenon, and the recent book, Against the Modern World). What better snake venom than some sophistique oulala connecting Derrida and Ibn Arabi.
My answer to these people is that if they can’t grasp modernity, they can’t be all that esoteric. They hate democracy because sufism is an secret elite ripoff, and is not open to the common man, except for some exoteric garbage sufistic front organizations.
These poisonous people will no doubt have a good laugh that Marxists suddenly show them some respect or interest.
Western students of those traditions should be very suspicious of being used by such people. Soft converts are a strategic asset for those plotting these terrible conspiracies (although I think we are seeing the last of it, after the horrors of the twentieth century. I hardly agree with Fukuyama, but he might be convincing to such people).
This is no joke. I have met sufi groups wearing nazi armbands who brag of their fascist indifference to mass murder, the sufi hyena world. Ditto for certain strains of Buddhism.
Doesn’t it suddenly seem quite odd that democracy failed in Iraq (after a completely fake effort to create it from the likes of the Bush gang)! What’s going on here?
Time to deconstruct Sufism. Marxists beware. No, they are not your friends.
The basic rule is: never surrender your freedom in the name of esoteric wisdom.
Most people would find the mere thought of that bizarre. Yet the con happens all the time in New Age circles. Read Ouspensky’s book on Gurdjieff, you will see how the method of conning people out of their autonomy is there between the lines, in fact a bit too obvious in the puzzling loudmouth Gurdjieff. Maybe he still had a conscience and half meant to give the game away. Remember, lest this seem unfair, that he dropped hints about dangerous experiments conducted on guinea pigs.
Be forewarned, and never trust such people.

A Derridean Mysticism:
A Review of Sufism and Deconstruction
by Sharif Islam
Orhan Pamuk in The Black Book jokingly referred to Ibn ‘Arabi as “the existentialist of all time.” In his Sufism and Deconstruction: A Comparative Study of Derrida and Ibn ‘Arabi, Ian Almond, a teacher of English literature at Bosphorus University, is not interested in giving the medieval Sufi mystic a catchy label. Rather, his aim is to juxtapose Derrida’s hermeneutics with distinctive Sufi rhetoric. One of the main goals of this ambitious study is to show how a deconstructive process similar to Derrida’s can be found in the writings of Ibn ‘Arabi. Almond raises an intriguing question: “How analogous can the vocabulary of a Sufi saint be to the work of contemporary French theorist?” His book shows that “the work of Ibn ‘Arabi, far from being obscure Sufi esotericism encrypted in mystical Eastern terminology, actually asks the same questions and moves in some similar directions as a number of familiar figures in the West.”